MARLBORO - WINSTON - L&M - CAMEL - PARLIAMENT - KENT - CLASSIC

French ladies have recently found an easy way of getting rid of needless presents from importunate admirers or ex-husband. There is a new but already booming tendency of selling old jewelry and wedding rings to the cigarette retailers in order to remelt their gold into dentures. In exchange they can take cigarette or alcohol; some convenience stores even offer sweets and fruits and other goods.

This trend has become enormously popular these days while a great part of almost 29,000 of tobacco retailers throughout France apply every existing effort to boost sales in order to support their incomes, which have been in a constant drop since last summer. The retailers offer smokers to give gold items in exchange of cigarettes, giving the gold to a company that melts it into dentures and other medical products.

The difficult economic situation, the growing cost of gold and increasing number of divorces and breakdowns have teamed up to give an unbelievable boost to what was initially an insignificant practice.

Divorced or separated couples as well as other people backed the idea of getting rid of unwanted jewelry. Therefore, rings, charms, other jewelry as well as coins and other gold items that have been kept in families for decades, are now sold or exchanged.

According to preliminary estimations, French families keep more than 5,000 tonnes of various gold items; that is more than in any other nation.

Stephan Devilder, the spokesman for Valeurs Precieuses et Or, the author of the idea to collect gold in exchange for money or other goods, said that it would bring inevitable change mentality and way of life.

“Vending gold has been alien to traditions of French people,” Mr. Devilder told The Financial Times. “In contrast to, for instance, Norway or Germany or the Denmark, the French families have not ever trusted the money, since the economic situation has been unstable so many times; therefore, they would rather save gold instead of paper money.”

The gold is currently selling for around €22,000 ($ 25,000) per kilo, in comparison with €10,000 per kilo several years ago. That led people to the idea that selling gold could help them cope with difficult economic situation.

Valeurs Precieuses et Or has provided cigarette retailers with electronic scales and special chemicals to assess the value of gold and other precious metals brought by customers and gives them a remuneration on the collected gold. An aggregate of around 1,300 tobacco retailers have already agreed to enter the practice and at least 600 will take part later this year.

One of them is Stanislas Alphand, the owner of a cigarette shop in Amiens. Mr. Alphand admitted that he sought for some new means of earning money, since his sales as well as the sales of other cigarettes sellers dropped dramatically with the beginning of economic crisis.

He said gold and precious metals became a nice solution to earn up to €500 ($ 800) every month, and what was especially pleasant was that the company gave him all the devices, so he did not have to purchase something.

Mr. Alphand also told the Financial Times reporter that the majority of customers who sell gold were divorced women, since they simply wished to get rid of the presents from their husbands. And often they spend all the money the have got to buy cigarettes or other products. A woman in Alphand’s store admitted she has just sold her ring presented by her ex-husband, and she was going to buy a bottle of wine to celebrate her divorce.